Author
Topic: .17 Mach 2 (Read 7891 times)

perfomance at and beyound 100 yds is better with Hmr. That extra velosity at the muzzle makes a big difference down range. Energy= mass x (velosity squared). That makes for a flatter trajectory, less drop at 100 and more dependable kills at longer ranges. I won't BS you, with a 17 or 20 gr pill neither one likes wind much. Even a slight breeze can make things interesting. Thats what keeps it hunting, not shopping.

i got a bolt action marlin 17 mach 2 last week and love it i shot 6 squirrells the other day and 4 were head shots the longest shot was probably 40 yards but it performed great in my book its replaced my 22 fo sure. i sited it in and shot nickel sized groups at 50 and i thought that was good enough for me.

well the hornady boxs are 5.75 where get them but ellay shells i think are 3.50 its more than 22 shells but whats a couple more bucks when you get the satisfaction of seeing that squirrell drop out of a tree

I just got my new Marlin Model 60 sighted in today. I can't complain about it at all. I'm sure I'll get consistant head shots out to 40 yards.

I tried to go hunting after I was done, but had no luck spotting a squirrel outside my blazer. I saw three while driving, and none in the woods. One that I saw dove into a hole in a tree at my parking spot. I waited there over an hour and he never came back out. It was rainy today so I didn't really expect to get very good results anyway.

It was just very lightly sprinkling when I got to my hunting place this morning. It quit right after I got there. I saw 5 squirrels, shot 2 fox squirrels, 1 shot each. One was at 100 yards minimum, the other one was well over 100 yards. I have my .17HMR sighted in for 50 meters, so it's good for 100 yards and a tad over. One was a neck shot that did a lot of damage. The second one was smack dab right in the head. The Federal .17gr VMax hit him just below one eye and out the other eye of the rascal's head, where the other eye had been. The hole was larger than a quarter sized hole out the other side of the head. The entire brain pan was gone, too. A couple of fragments of lead even traveled back and under his shoulder, and there was extensive neck damage. And that was a shot well over 100 yards, so you can visualize the power and damage of the .17HMR. What's strange is when you hit a squirrel head and do all that damage, it doesn't blow the squirrel out of the tree. They usually hang and drop. The bullet is so small and fast, it penetrates so slick without hardly any resistance, and then blows up in the head. It's like gently injecting a mini bomb into the head and then detonating it. I shot a big feral cat that was running right straight at me last year. The bullet didn't slam the cat back, it just blew up in him and did massive damage to his innards. He took a couple of impossible leaps, ran a short distance, and died. The big coyote I nailed last year was doing the same thing, running right at me and took the VMax right straight on in the throat. He couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 yards from me when the bullet hit him. He almost piled up right on my feet. Was he surprised! Dumb coyote was trotting by and I gave him a mouth squeak. He made a hard left and sprang right into overdrive, but I was ready for him. He didn't even know I was there, even though I was standing up at the time and at the ready. Camo helps greatly when hunting, and I was also wearing my camo face cover, just by luck.

I shot a squirrel with my .17 once that did something like a slow motion back flip. Bang it froze the fell off the log it was one backward.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It kills the squirrels so quick that everything shuts down immediately. The hydro shock is so great that if not hit in the head, the blood vessels in the vitals missed receive a lot of shock. I imagine a lot of small game animals actually suffer a massive stroke and heart damage along with the bullet damage.

Another sign of quick death by 17 is a lung shot. The internal damage is evident by the bruising of the internal organs not damaged by the bullet itself.